Course Description:

This course explores the formation of modern East Asia by examining the interrelated histories of China and Japan starting in the 1600s.  We will study the large historical processes of “modernization” wrought by Euro-American imperialism, industrialization, and the formation of modern nation-states and think about how the wrenching economic, social, cultural, and intellectual changes accompanying these processes were understood by the people of the time. Additionally, we will examine the factors that led the nations of East Asia to a cataclysmic war in the mid-20^th century, the geopolitical realignments of the Cold War, the allure of Communism in China, and the sources of continuing tension in the region today.      

Course Materials:

• Required Books
• Summaries
• Videos/Clips
• Discussion Questions

Required Books

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Anne Walthall. East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Third Edition. ISBN 978-1133606475

Kang, Hildi. Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0801472701.

[Optional] Walsh, Andrew. East Asian History 1600 – Present: A Source Reader. Union, NJ: Kean University, Unpublished Work, 2021.

Summaries

#8 Under the Black Umbrella, Part I (Chapters 1-7). 
Amazon Link

#9 Under the Black Umbrella, Part II (Chapters 8-14). 
Amazon Link

#14 “China: Power and Prosperity”

Films and Video/Clips

“29 Things That Exist Only in Japan.” YouTube. Bright Side, September 28, 2019. https://youtu.be/s1m_yhi9oqA. 

“American Perspective on ‘First Contact’ with Japan (1853) // Perry’s Expedition // Primary Source.” YouTube. Voices of the Past, July 11, 2020. https://youtu.be/Mq1A7lBaS_c. 

“China: Power and Prosperity — Watch the Full Documentary.” YouTube. PBS News Hour, November 22, 2019. https://youtu.be/JovtmKFxi3c. 

“Evolution of Evil E03: Mao Zedong: Full Documentary.” YouTube. Criminals and Crime Fighters, April 13, 2018. https://youtu.be/WxaWmqgmJxs. 

Greene, John. “Communists, Nationalists, and China’s Revolutions: Crash Course World History #37.” YouTube. CrashCourse, October 4, 2012. https://youtu.be/UUCEeC4f6ts. 

Park, Yeonmi. “Tyranny, Slavery and Columbia U | Yeonmi Park | the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast – S4: E26.” YouTube. YouTube, May 31, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yqa-SdJtT4&ab_channel=JordanBPeterson.

The Last Samurai. United States: Warner Bros., 2003. Amazon Link

“What Was China’s Cultural Revolution and Why Was It So Violent?” YouTube. Now This World, May 20, 2016. https://youtu.be/7G0UXnXpABw.

How to use Blackboard (If applicable).

Help with Blackboard Playlist

Presentation Directions

• Each student will select a topic from the provided list.
• Presentations will be 10-15 minutes in length. (If more time is needed, please consult me before presentation days).
• There will be a question-and-answer period after each presentation.
• I will (most likely) ask questions throughout the presentation. This will serve as a test for Mastery of the topic and help the presenter if they are stuck or missing key features to their assignment.
• All digital presentations are to be emailed to me prior to their due date.

Topic list

1. Shinto
2. Daoism
3. Buddhism
4. Confucianism
5. Bushido
6. Genghis Khan – The Mongols
7. Biography of Ho Chi Minh – Vietnam
8. Okinawa
9. The Ainu
10. The Gold Rush – China
11. Uighur Muslims – China
12. The Falun Gong – China
13. The Great Leap Forward – China
14. Taiwan’s relationship with China and Japan.
15. The Current state of North Korea (Fall of the Soviet Union to Present day).
16. The Khmer Rouge – Cambodia
17. U.S. Occupation and Reconstruction of Japan, 1945–52
18. The Real Last Samurai – Saigo Takamori (1827-1877)
19. The Atomic bomb’s influence on Anime and Manga.

You May choose other topics with Permission

Scoring Rubric for Presentations

Grade Scale

A	3.8-4.0	C+	2.3-2.9
A-	3.6-3.7	C	2.0-2.2
B+	3.3-3.5	D	1.0-1.9
B- Minimum Passing Grade	2.7-2.9	F	0.0

How to Complete Summaries

Summery Template

Completed Summery Examples

Completed Summary ExamplesDownload

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Common Summery Mistakes

Common Summery MistakesDownload

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Instructions for Article Summery Submissions

Use one separate sheet of paper for each assigned article. At the top, type –

• Your name and date of the submissions.
  • The name of the course
  • The author, title, and date of the document
  • The document’s source and page range

Checklist for each summary, follow form (see the samples for comparison). Did you –

• Limit to one page? (I will not read additional pages).
• Type in single space?
• Type each heading in bold font.
• Type each summary in 12-point, Times New Roman with 1” margins?
• Staple together all summaries as one set that are due each class?
• If submitted digitally – Submit in 1 word document file.
• (Example) – If there are 3 summaries, each will fill 1 page but there will be one word file.

Using just one page (single-space), complete four sections. Type each heading in bold face, your responses in roman type (see example).

Thesis summary

In just 2-3 sentences, carefully sum up the article’s main argument in your own words. You must read the entire article to determine its thesis.

Four specific “thesis” ideas

List four distinctive ideas expressed in your thesis summary.

These four ideas come from the four quotes that you have selected. Distill the main ideas from the four quotes to discover your four main ideas.

These ideas will be used to make your thesis summery. If the four ideas are not in your thesis summery, then you do not have a completed summery.

Quotations and their relations to the thesis

Select and quote one brief passage from the article to illustrate each of the four ideas in order – four passages in all. Use passages that you underline/highlight in the article. Please note.

• After each quoted passage, indicate (in parenthesis) the document author and the page number of the article or Source Reader where the passage appears. (If there is no author, indicate the document’s title, then page number. If there is no page number, number each documented page sequentially.)
• Example of parenthetic citation:
  • “Example of parenthetic citation” (Walsh, 2).
    • Notice where the period is? It is AFTER the citation.
• For each quoted passage, be sure to comment in your words, showing in 1-2 sentences exactly how the passage illustrates the document’s thesis. Do not merely reprise a thesis point.

Historical context

In this section you must compare each document you are summing up (A) with one other document (B) –

• Select document B from documents you already summed up in the preceding weeks.
• Select a different document B for each document A you are summing up.
• In 1-3 sentences, use your class lecture and discussion notes to show how both documents reflect key contemporary political developments.

For reading assignments accompanied by audio notes, add a fifth section –

Audio Notes (If Applicable)

Briefly explain how the audio notes clarified the assigned articles, at the beginning of class on the class day when the summary or summaries are due. Under no circumstances will I accept submissions at any other time.

Videos/Clips

Summaries from videos are completed the same as written articles. The difference is in the citation. In the parenthetical citation, please identify the starting and ending position of the quote that you selected. Example: (Walsh 1:25 – 1:35).

Discussion Questions

Discussion questions are formative assessments to determine the student’s mastery of the material. The difficulty with content that is vast is, “what material is important and what is not?” These questions are the root of what we are trying to learn throughout our course. If you can demonstrate mastery over our discussion questions, you have learned the material I intended for you to learn.

How to answer Discussion Questions?

A numbered Discussion Question (DQ) will have several elements to it. This is by design. These questions are not meant to be answered in fragmented sentences. They are an exercise that demands critical thinking. DQs should be written out in the form of a paragraph, not listed answers. You may tackle the series of questions in whichever order that you choose; just make sure to answer each of the questions. It is also the case, that multiple questions can be answered in the same sentence. That is acceptable! If there are 5 questions and you answer the 5 within 4 sentences, that is acceptable (providing that all 5 questions are answered). Points will be deducted on a per-question basis. That means, that if the DQ asks 5 questions and you answer one of them incorrectly, you will get points for the correct answers and lose the points for the incorrect answers. The score would be a 4/5 or an 80% for that example.

Discussion Questions

DQ#1

Who were the Manchus?  How did their history as “outsiders” shape the way they ruled China? What made the Qing Dynasty strong?  What were some of its accomplishments? How did it seek to regulate its relations with countries beyond its borders”?

DQ #2

How did the Tokugawa shogunate bring peace and order back to Japan after a century of civil war?  What was the balance of power that was created between the shogunate and the regional lords (daimyo)? What was lifelike for peasants during the Tokugawa era?  How did the Tokugawa government seek to regulate relations with other nations?

DQ #3

What were some of the internal/domestic problems that began to threaten Qing/Manchu control?  What were some of the external/foreign problems that began to threaten Qing/Manchu control?  How did the Qing government respond to these threats?  What role did opium play in China’s decline?

DQ #4

Why did the United States government send Commodore Perry to Japan? What was Japan like when Perry arrived? What other countries made treaties with Japan at this time? What were some of the terms of the treaties? What were some of the problems caused by the foreign trade resulting from the treaties?

DQ #5

How did Japan’s response to the crisis differ from China’s?  What accounts for these very different responses?  How did the Meiji Restoration transform Japan?   How did people in Japan respond to the rapid changes of the Meiji era?  What are some of the things Meiji modernizers learned from Western nations? 

DQ #6 (Part I of Under the Black Umbrella)

Choose 3 chapters to analyze in Part I of Under the Black Umbrella (The 3 do not need to be consecutive). Identify the diversity of experiences told throughout part I. Based on your reading, what was lifelike in Korea at this time? What were some of the people’s responses to Japanese control? What hardships did Koreans endure? What new opportunities did they have? Overall, how did colonization affect Korea?  How did it shape Koreans’ perceptions of themselves and their nation? What are your thoughts on Part I?

DQ #7 (Part II of Under the Black Umbrella)

Choose 3 chapters to analyze in Part II of Under the Black Umbrella (The 3 do not need to be consecutive). Identify the diversity of experiences told throughout part I. Based on your reading, what was lifelike in Korea at this time? What were some of the people’s responses to Japanese control? What hardships did Koreans endure? What new opportunities did they have? Overall, how did colonization affect Korea?  How did it shape Koreans’ perceptions of themselves and their nation? What are your thoughts on Part II?

DQ #8

Why wasn’t the Manchu Dynasty unable to survive?  Who overthrew it and why?  What forms did Chinese nationalism take at this time?  Why was Chinese nationalism so often “anti-Chinese?”  How did Chinese revolutionaries envision China’s future?  Who was Lu Hsun (Xun) and why is he considered the father of modern Chinese literature?

DQ #9

Why did Japan go to war with China in the 1930s? What were Japanese justifications for war?  How was Japanese aggression experienced by people in China? How did the war with Japan impact the ongoing conflict between the Nationalists and Communists in China? Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? Why did Japan lose World War II? What impacts did the Allied Occupation have on Japan?

DQ #10

What is the most interesting thing that you have learned in this course?

Course by week

Each week has its own page. Click the Week number to skip to the page or use the navigation pane at the bottom of each page.

Week 1

Ice Breaker: Getting to know one another.

Going over the Syllabus

Week 2 – Creation of the Manchu Empire

Week 3 – The Tokugawa Order

Week 4 – China in Decline

Week 5 – Japan in Turmoil

Week 6 – Meiji Transformation & Rise of Modern Japan

Week 7 – Meiji Transformation & Rise of Modern Japan II

Week 8 – Colonial Korea

Week 9 – Re-envisioning China

Week 10 – Total War in East Asia

Week 11 – Comparing/Contrasting Nanjing to the Holocaust.

Week 12 – The Atomic Bombs & End of WWII in Asia

Week 13 – Chairman Mao –> Xi Jing Ping

Week 14 – Modern North Korea

Week 15 – Class Presentations